Tag Archives: Golden State Warriors

This year’s World Series features a pair of teams, the L.A. Dodgers and Boston Red Sox, who are making their second Fall Classic appearances in the last 10 years. The Dodgers lost to the Houston Astros in last year’s World Series; the Red Sox won the championship in 2013.

With that being said, would you say that baseball has been a model of parity in the World Series over the past 10 years? How about the parity of the other professional sports… the NBA, NHL and NFL?

Let’s take a look at how many different teams have played for their sport’s championship in the last 10 seasons.

In the past 10 seasons, the professional league with the “best” parity in their title game/series is a tie between the NFL and NHL. Both of those leagues have seen 14 different teams play for the title in the last 10 seasons. Major League Baseball follows with 13 different teams playing in the World Series in the last 10 years. Not surprisingly, the league with the “least” parity is the NBA; in the last 10 seasons, only nine teams have played for the title in the NBA.

Only four franchises have played in four or more title games/series in the past 10 years: New England Patriots (NFL), Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA), Golden State Warriors (NBA) and the Miami Heat (NBA). All played in four title series games/series in the last 10 years.

If we look at how many teams have played in more than one championship title game/series in the last 10 years in the NBA, NHL, NFL or MLB, baseball has the most teams with six. They are followed by the NBA with five and both the NFL and NHL with four.

The teams that have played in two or more championship series/games in the last 10 seasons:

One final question: Which pro league has gone the longest without back-to-back title winners? If you answered baseball, you win the prize. The last back-to-back World Series champs are the New York Yankees in 1999 and 2000. The last back-to-back Super Bowl champs are the New England Patriots from 2004 and 2005. The NHL had back-to-back Stanley Cup winners in 2016 and 2017 with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the NBA had back-to-back champions with the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and 2018.

For only the 13th time in NBA history, the Finals series does not feature a team that was ranked/seeded #1 when the playoffs began. The Cavs were the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, while the Warriors were the #2 seed in the Western Conference.

The last time a #1 seed did not appear in the NBA Finals was 2012 when the second-seeded Miami Heat faced off against the second-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. The last time two #1 seeds squared off in the finals was in 2016 when the Cavs and Warriors played for the title, the second of their four match-ups.

Here’s a look at the 13 times when no #1 seed played in the NBA Finals.

This is the fourth straight year that Cleveland and Golden State have faced each other in the NBA Finals. Based on that, you would think that the Cavs and Warriors would have the two best regular season records in the NBA in the last four years. WRONG! The Warriors have the best regular season record in the league in the past four seasons, 265-63 (.808). But the Cavs have the fifth-best regular season record in the league since the 2014-15 season, 211-117 (.643). Do you know which three teams have a better regular season record than the Cavs over the past four seasons?

Following are the five teams with the best regular season win-loss records in the past four seasons.

The Los Angeles Clippers are the only other team to have a winning percentage over .600 in the past four seasons, 202-126 (.616). The worst record in the NBA over the past four years? The Lakers… 99-229 (.302).

With their Game Six win over Houston, the Golden State Warriors forced a Game Seven in the Western Conference Finals. By doing so, for the first time in almost 40 years we have both conference finals series going to a decisive Game Seven.

The last time both conference finals series went to a seventh game was in 1979 when the Seattle Supersonics beat the Phoenix Suns in Game Seven to advance to the ’79 NBA Finals and the Washington Bullets won Game Seven over the San Antonio Spurs to reach the finals that same year. The only other time both conference finals went to a seventh game was in 1963.

For the Celtics and Rockets this year, they have history on their side when it comes to conference finals Game Seven; the home team has won Game Seven of the conference finals 26 of the 33 times. The good news for the Warriors and Cavs is that there have been seven times when an away team has won Game Seven of conference finals. Those seven times:

As you might expect, the Boston Celtics have had the most Game Seven wins in the conference finals (also called the division finals at one time). The Celts have won seven Game Sevens in conference/division finals. The Lakers are second in this category with five such wins.

On the flip side, the Indiana Pacers have lost the most conference/division finals Game Sevens with four. They are followed by the Celtics, Philadelphia76ers and St. Louis Hawks with three each.

One final stat: The 33 teams that have won a conference/division finals by winning Game Seven have only gone on to win the NBA Finals that year 16 times. Fatigue factor?

Not that the Houston Rockets needed any more bad news after their 126-85 drubbing at the hands of the Golden State Warriors in Game Three of their Western Conference Finals series, but suffering a 40-point loss in the conference finals did not bode well for previous teams who suffered such a classic beatdown.

The Rockets 41-point loss to Golden State was the sixth time in conference finals history that a team has been defeated by 40 or more points. And in four of the previous five times, the team that lost that blowout also lost the series.

Here’s a look at the six conference finals games where there was a 40-point differential in the score.

1958: St. Louis 145, Detroit 101 (44-point difference)

1973: L.A. Lakers 126, Golden State 70 (56-point difference)

1982: Boston 121, Philadelphia 81 (40-point difference)

1985: L.A. Lakers 153, Denver 109 (44-point difference)

2017: Cleveland 130, Boston 86 (44-point difference)

2018: Golden State 126, Houston 85 (41-point difference)

The only team to lose a conference finals game by 40 or more points and still win the conference finals series were the 1982 Philadelphia 76ers. Boston defeated the 76ers 121-81 in Game One of the series, a 40-point whupping, but the 76ers ended up winning the series in seven games and advanced to the NBA Finals that year.

Will the Rockets fall in the series, or will they be able to recover from this historic loss and win the series against the Warriors?

The next round of the 2018 NBA playoffs are set with the Boston Celtics taking on the Cleveland Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals and Golden State Warriors facing the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals.

The home court advantage will likely be a factor in both series. The Celtics will have the advantage in the East, while the Rockets will host four of the potential seven games in the West.

Consider this:

Of the 64 games played so far in the NBA playoffs this season, home teams are 46-18, a .719 winning percentage. In fact, the four teams remaining in the playoffs are 23-2 at home in this post season (a staggering .920 winning percentage) while these same four teams are only 9-9 (.500 winning percentage) as the away team in this year’s playoffs.

Here’s a look at each of the remaining four teams’ records in home and away playoff contests this year:

Boston: 7-0 at home; 1-4 on the road Cleveland: 5-1 at home; 3-2 on the road Golden State: 6-0 at home; 2-2 on the road Houston: 5-1 at home; 3-1 on the road

Let’s take a look back to 2010. The Celtics, Cavs, Warriors and Rockets have been regulars in the post season in the last nine seasons, although the Rockets have not played as many post-season games as the other three since 2010. Following are the home and away records in the post season of the four teams since 2010.

Team, Home record/Away Record Boston, 35-16 (.686)/17-31 (.354)

Cleveland, 31-9 (.775)/26-15 (.634)

Golden State, 41-8 (.837/23-19 (.548)

Houston, 19-10 (.655)/9-17 (.346)

The Cavs and Golden State are the only two teams of the 30 NBA squads to have a winning percentage over .500 in road playoff games since 2010.

One final stat:

Home teams are 59-30 in conference finals since 2010, a .663 winning percentage.